


Promise me, That You'll Live a Long Life

by Bouken da bouken (Jeaganda)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:06:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28623033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeaganda/pseuds/Bouken%20da%20bouken
Summary: AOT MANGA SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IF NOT CAUGHT UP.He had seen Isabel. Furlan. His squad, his comrades. His mother. Kenny.And yet, at the end of all of it, stood one man.With his back to Levi, his blonde hair shone marvelously in the daylight, an outline of gold surrounding him.At the end of all of it, stood Erwin.
Relationships: Levi/Erwin Smith
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

Maybe he wasn't thinking. Maybe he hadn't thought that the damn bastard would move. Maybe he had underestimated the power that those metal rods he hated so much possessed. Why did he hate them. . .? He doesn't remember. Not that it matters, not when his ears are ringing with the boom of a far too close explosion, not when his skin is tearing with flame and his body is flying backwards with the devastating knockback. There's light, if only briefly, that blinds his eyes. It's from the spear, no doubt, and joining it is red. Little petals that violently decorate the air, in front of Levi's eyes.

He sees a finger. Then two. And three.

Are those his? He can't tell. The pain that spreads through him is in every nerve and limb in his body. He's paralyzed, too. He can't move. So how should he know?

It doesn't matter. If they were the monkey's, or his, it didn't matter. It doesn't matter.

It was too late to regret anything, anyways. Even then, wasn't he supposed to live a life with no regrets?

Did it even matter?

The light from the spear fades from his blurred, now reddening, vision. He can't move his fingers to touch his eye, but it doesn't matter. If his eye had been shot out, it didn't matter. It doesn't matter.

If it was over, it didn't matter. It doesn't matter.

Why are those words the only things he can repeat? He doesn't know. Does it matter. . .?

The agonized screams of Zeke penetrate his ringing ear drums, but it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter as the light escapes him, and the screams dull. As he shuts his eyes, the void engulfs him.


	2. I Swear

There's a buzzing in his ear.

His eyes are shut, but they no longer feel of the searing pain he had dreamt of being in moments prior.

The ground upon which he rests is unfamiliar, soft to the touch and euphoric. His body feels light, and free of injury.

There's a brightness that penetrates his closed eyelids, and his brows twitch in irritation.

He knows he isn't in his chair, so he can't blame the light on the commander, and yet he never sleeps in a bed, either.

So how come this annoyance was bothering him? Where even was he?

The events of what he had thought to be the present numb him, and slowly fade into obscurity within his mind.

He thinks it was just a nightmare. A bad dream, and he had just awoken from it. But what point in time even was he?

The question that spawns in his head is enough to confuse him.

It's enough to force him to flutter open his eyes.

At first it's nothing but a bright, blinding light, that forces him to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment, eyeballs tearing up at the unexpected brightness. Yet as he flutteringly blinks, he slowly adjusts, and slowly, maintains an open state.

There is nothing above him but a vast, clear blue, the likes of which he has never seen.

To him, it is what he had always pictured when he was a young, dreaming boy in the underground.

Freedom. Peace. It smells of serenity, and a calm he had only sparingly experienced beneath the nature's abode.

It's silent, and yet only moments later there comes the beautiful, sing song cry of birds above him.

There's two.

They're white, and they move with the grace and elegance of trained soldiers, whose bodies move like that of dancers.

As his senses come to, he feels another body moving beneath him, muscles contracting as long legs hit the earthy ground beneath them. His horse.

Wind coarses through his hair and drags it behind him, hitting his face like soft kisses, whispering sweet words of nothingness into his ears. It's nostalgic, and yet he can't figure why. His mind is still dull, and memories are now but a misconception to him.

When he looks to his side, looking down from the sky, he thinks he should see someone else beside him.

No- not just somebody, but people.

But there is no one beside him, and when he looks forwards, he realizes there isn't anyone even near him.

Horses. There are horses ahead, but they're too far. They're leaving him behind, and in their wake, he suddenly spots delicate roses of blood, splattered on the ground, trampled by the hooves that sow them.

His heart, previously slow and indifferent, spurs into action, and sends his body into an alive, erratic motion.

His horse slips, and with his limbs suddenly feeling so sore and limp, he falls over and tumbles into the pools of crimson.

It feels so familiar.

Why?

His once unchanging eyes flinch, and his pupils shrink as he stares at an endless sea of crimson. The earth beneath him is gone, leaving him in this empty, shallow pond. Red stains his hands, and the once pure white of his uniform. What had happened? Why is-

"Big brother," On the wind comes a sweet voice, and its arrival sweeps away the gore and the hollowness of the despair before him. It's melodic on the breeze, and it forces his body to relax, though he doesn't know why. 

He doesn't turn to face it, but he realizes he doesn't have to.

"Hey, Levi. It's been a while, why don't you say something?"

As he stares at the floor, he looks at tattered, filthy floorboards. Yet despite the thought that tells him to be repulsed, his senses are immediately silenced as two pairs of brown boots that were once akin to his own step into sight.

Those voices. . . Those boots. . .

His grey irises shrink.

His hands shake against his thighs as he lifts his head.

Before him stands two figures he hasn't seen in almost decades.

One is tall. He has sandy, stylish hair, and blue eyes. The other is short. She has auburn hair instead, and its tied into two tiny little pigtails. It compliments her green eyes.

As he looks past them, and looks back to the sky, it's still blue. It's still clear.

Had it ever changed?

The sandy haired one extends his hand.

Levi eyes it for a moment, before the auburn one extends her hand as well.

His chest tightens, and in his weakness, he places his hands in theirs.

They pull him up as if he were a feather.

"Furlan," he whispers, "Isabel."

"Hey, big bro," Isabel's face is red and cute, her eyes sparkling with both joy and some foreign emotion Levi has never seen on her face before. Her eyes are glossy.

"You've kept us waiting for quite some time," Furlan interjects, although he sounds wistful as he continues, "Honestly, it would've been nice to wait a little longer."

"Waiting?" He breathlessly replies. His grey eyes search that of his former comrades, but he doesn't know why.

What is he looking for? Is it that emotion that he's never seen before?

Where is he?

At what point in time is he. . .

"Yeah! It's been quite some time, hasn't it? You're an old man now, big bro!"

He blinks.

Furlan smiles apologetically.

"I've gotta agree on that front. Honestly though, you haven't changed a bit." His hand levels at Levi's head, before his laughing shakes it away, "I thought the sun would help you grow, but. . . Seeing you up close now, I can see it didn't."

He's offended. Hes offended, but he's happy. There's only so few people that can do that to him, so why is this a feeling that suddenly feels so foreign? 

If there was somebody who could do it, and as he recalls, so frequently, then how. . .

It hits him.

". . . You're both dead," he suddenly speaks. This seems to startle both Isabel and Furlan, and they share a sad, knowing glance.

". . . Yeah. Seems you're having a bit of trouble remembering yourself."

Isabel's lip quips downwards. "It's okay, big bro. Me and Furlan were like that too at first."

Levi's gaze drifts down to his hands. They're shaking.

"Then that means. . ."

A hand slaps his back, ushering him forwards.

"Don't worry about it too much, Levi." The captain lifts his head to see a grin on his friend's face.

Isabel joins in on the pushing. 

"Yeah! We can worry about it later, but for now, our time has unfortunately run out. . . Turns out we're not the only ones who want to see you, after all."

Before the current reality seems to escape from him, he turns his head over his shoulder to spot both Furlan and Isabel grinning widely at him.

Flashes of his memories invade his head, and hes left speechless as he stares.

He looks to the sky, and sees that the birds are gone.

When he looks back down, Furlan and Isabel are gone as well.

No, he thinks, not again-

But as he stumbles forward to grasp at the air they were once taking up, he holds onto something else.

His hand is clenched around a women's dress, bunched up in the indigo fabric it was made of.

Its unfamiliar. He has never seen this fabric in his life, nor touched it.

He recalls Isabel's last words.

Other people wanted to see him.

What did that mean?

His hand swiftly departs from the woman's clothing, yet he feels no malice coming from the owner.

His head slowly lifts up, only to find what looks almost like a mirror image of him- except instead of framed by the sky, the woman is framed by a dark room. The ceiling is peeling and cracked, the floor boards are at least maintained but dirty, and the bed the woman stands in front of is rickety and splintered.

Yet when he looks up, when he looks the woman in her kind, tender eyes, the room illuminates with light.

He recognizes this room, yet not the light that fills it.

This was the underground.

Where was this light coming from?

"Levi," the woman whispers so sweetly, with so much care and love that Levi isnt sure who that name is really directed at.

The woman's long, slender hand comes down to caress his cheek, her knees bending as she reaches down to him.

His lips are parted, staring listlessly at the lady who touches him.

This is a stranger, he thinks, so why is it that he doesn't move away? Why does he feel so warm, so complete? His throat is dry, and yet he leans into her touch.

"You've grown into such a fine man. I'm so proud," her voice trembles, "I'm so proud of you."

As he stares into her eyes, his lips dare to mutter one word that flashes into his head.

". . . Mother?"

The lady smiles at him. Warm.

"I love you," she says, and both her and the dirty room twist away from him.

"Mot-" he attempts to call out, his hand reaching out for her dress once more, but he's stranded. Those words, he's heard them before. In his subconscious, when he was young. Those words awakened memories within him he was unaware he even had.

His eyes feel glossy. He thinks they likely look like glass.

The sky before him opens up again, but instead of being clear, its dotted by leaves, reaching high into the sky, blocking the majority of the light from reaching him.

The air here is more fresh, and alive, much more breathable than the stagnated atmosphere in the room he had just been in.

Then again, any air of the surface was much more tolerable than the stagnation of the underground.

Before him stands four people.

They don't say anything to him, but they smile, and they wave.

One has platnium hair, parted much like his, and upon noticing the cravat he wears around his neck, Levi is reminded immediately of all the irritating memories he holds of the man. Yet they aren't malicious. They're fond, and it's in that moment that Levi recollects who he is and what he's experiencing, suddenly missing the impersonation he had once considered so annoying.

His lips twitch as he spots the man saying something to his comrades, only to bite his tongue and turn away in pain.

Next to him is a taller man, his skin is more tanned than the rest and his brown hair is spiked up in the middle. He looks warmly at Levi.

Beside him is an equally as tall man, whose blond hair is tied back, and unshaven features stare at him with a warmth he hasn't seen in years. It's so painful to stare at it now, but he misses it.

His eyes travel to the shortest member of the group.

Her golden eyes are bright and lively despite the dark of the forest, and her orange hair sweeps calmly around her face as the wind blows it.

He stares for a moment as she smiles, and waves.

For the first time, Levi allows himself to do the same back.

By the time Levi has recognized their shock and joy, he's swept away once more, except this time, it's to a much more open field of trees.

His eyes flit to the sky first, and in an almost shocking revelation, he sees that it's not blue, but instead, its cast in various shades of red and orange, the sun embarking towards the horizon.

Before him, he changes his vision to see a man before him, slouched against a tall oak tree. He's looking straight at Levi, although he's sure its actually right behind him, as the captain turns to see and find a large reservoir just behind him.

He doesn't move, to which the man simply scoffs, and tilts up his hat.

Levi's eyes widen.

"Kenny," he immediately mouths, his feet instinctively dragging himself forwards. It lacks the vigor and the anger it held the last time he had called that name. He doesn't care. The man obviously doesn't either, no matter how much he wishes to downplay it.

"What happened to all that fire, Levi?" He grunts, although he smirks at the man, "Don't tell me it died with ya'. I wouldn' believe it if ya' told me it went 'KABOOM'!"

Levi stops just in front of him.

He takes one look at the hat donning figure, before he kneels in front of him. He doesn't stay in that position for long, before dropping into a sitting stance.

"I'm still remembering,"Levi stiffly replies, "You've got the wrong idea, old man."

"Huuuh?" The former policeman drags, feigning his offense, "Yer' one to talk! Wasn' it just that little girl friend of yours that called ya' the same thing?!"

He rolls his eyes. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Kenny simply chuckles, and extends a long arm to ruffle Levi’s hair. Although he attempts to appear disgruntled, he doesn’t shy away from the man. 

“Y’know,” he drawls, letting his hand drift back down to his side, “There was somethin’ I never got to tell ya’ fore’ I kicked the bucket. Maybe I was jus’ too afraid to.” 

Levi seems to find this comedic, and scoffs.

“For a man who should be in hell, I don’t see how you could’ve been afraid.”

“Oi, oi! Cut me some slack on my visitin’ hours, kid!” Levi recognizes his jesting voice, and it makes him wonder if hell really exists. In fact, where even were they? He doesn’t dare ask the question.

Levi relaxes more, and Kenny sits up a bit more straight.

“Y’know. . . Always told people how proud of ya’ I was. Leavin’ you that day, I bragged to every guy I passed in that little ring.”

The captain blinks, his eyes widening slightly. A gust of wind sways the black strands in his eyes, and his lips part slightly

Kenny laughs at his expression.

“Said I was so proud of that little midget. Bragged that I had been the one to raise you,” he shakes his head, tipping his hat over his eyes, “Not in a fatherly sense, I guess, but it was somethin’. Guess you could say I got ya’ to where you are today.”

As Kenny lifts his head to smirk at Levi, the captain spirals into a midst of his emotions. They don’t show on his face, other than a seeming blankness, but Kenny doesn’t need to see to know.

He blows out some air.

“Well, that’s about all the time we have, kid.” Kenny pushes himself to his feet. For the first time in his life, he offers to help Levi to his as well.

The raven stares at his hand for a moment, before he gives in to that familial love, and allows for his short body to be pulled to his feet.

Kenny’s expression is warm as he looks at him.

“Ya’ made me proud. But ya’ still got a future ahead of yourself, so when I see ya’ next, I expect a great deal more.”

Levi doesn’t understand what he means, but before he can, the world twists away from him again, and the warmth from both Kenny’s eyes and hand are but a foreign kiss of the wind.

He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, as if he did that he’d reawaken in front of his uncle again, but when he opens them, he doesn’t find himself back in front of that tree, but neither does he find himself in the void once more.

Instead, the scenery replicates the most familiar scene he has ever been in.

The forest, where he suddenly remembers, he had been blown to bits.

But he doesn’t see his body, only the remains of the exploded cart that dot the earthy ground. He doesn’t see Zeke, either, and it leaves a dirty taste in his mouth. Of course it didn’t kill the bastard. Of course he didn’t make good on his promise. His fingers shake, but before he can allow himself to get too lost in his thoughts, the chatter of soldiers in front of him snaps him back into motion.

His heart seems to stop.

Before him are familiar figures.

Before him are Mike, that smelling dog bastard, and Nanaba, and Sasha, that annoying meat devil, and Moblit and the rest of Hange’s squad. They’re all intact, and uniformed, green capes billowing in the wind as they turn to look at him.

They grin, every last one of them, although he remarks in humour that Sasha looks almost nervous.

“C-Captain!” She calls anxiously, bowing her head in a sign of respect to him.

Levi can only find it in himself to smile after seeing the carefree girl again, and she startles straight, face flushing as she beams back.

Nanaba and Mike don’t speak, but they grunt and give him a nod of approval. It’s all he needs to know they’re glad to see him.

Although when he turns to Moblit, the man is looking far beyond Levi, but when he turns, he sees nothing.

Moblit laughs seeing this, and awkwardly apologizes.

“Sorry, sorry,” he chides, “I was just eyeing your body.”

Levi squints at him, and only then does Moblit realize what he had said.

His face flushes, and he chuckles nervously.

“Hange has it. She’s sticthing you up as we speak.”

This forces his eyes to widen.

But before he can ask anymore questions, the assistant ushers him forwards, past the rest of the corps.

“But no more chit chat for now! There’s one last person who wants to see you before you go.”

As he feels Moblit’s hands lift off his back, the scenery seems to morph slightly around him. The hall of smiling, familiar faces disappears, and the trees give way to a hill, being shone upon in a marvelous display of the sun. A man stands on top of it.

Steadily, he ascends the hill.

His body stops him at the top of it.

He had seen Isabel. Furlan. His squad, his comrades. His mother. Kenny.

And yet, at the end of all of it, stood one man.

With his back to Levi, his blonde hair shone marvelously in the daylight, an outline of gold surrounding him.

At the end of all of it, stood Erwin.

Levi doesn’t need to see his face to know who it is. Even though the blinding light obstructs his vision, he doesn’t need it.

“Erwin,” the familiar name rolls off his tongue, “Is that you?”

That sculpted face slowly turns around to meet him.

The most radiant, tender smile is the first thing that hits him. He almost falls to his knees.

“Levi,” that name comes drifting through the wind with as much warmth as Levi had uttered his, and no matter how many times the captain had heard it, the commander’s call of his name would always render him useless.

For a long moment, they just stare at each other, the deep blue of Erwin’s eyes reflecting on the grey of Levi’s. It's a familiar stare they're used to sharing. There was so much more they could convey through it, it was their own language.

". . . Your arm," he mutters, pointing towards the commander's once missing right arm.

Erwin chuckles, and flexes the fingers of that arm as if to show it was fully functional. 

"I may have passed with one, but it seems you regain everything in the afterlife."

Levi looks down.

"There isn't any hell then, is there?"

Erwin seems to pause, contemplating the question.

After a while, he shrugs.

"If there was one, then by no doubt I would be there," a gentle smile breaches his face, "But here I am."

The captain looks up once more, and this time, allows himself to move forward. The commander strides to meet him.

"I think we're lost without you," Levi says.

"Don't be," Erwin responds, "There are things I would have done differently, but there's no denying it now."

Grey eyes lock onto blue.

"What can we do?" He asks.

Erwin hums.

"Believe. Trust in one another," he stares past Levi now, into the unknown, "Don't regret. I'm sure you know it's the worst thing you could do."

Levi pathetically snorts at that, reaching out this time to gingerly take one of Erwin's calloused hands into his own. It's much larger, and intertwines perfectly with his own.

"I know. I live a life with no regrets," he meets Erwin's gaze again, "That was one of the many things I swore to you."

The commander smiles, and nods.

"Did you meet them?"

Levi knows without names being said.

"Yeah. I saw them first."

Erwin chuckles, and stares behind him to the horizon. The sky seems to be darkening, strewn with purples and reds.

"I assumed so. They travel with us, but they were insistent on privately welcoming you. I let them do as they please."

Levi cocks a brow at the commander, tilting his head.

"Travel?" He asks.

Turning his head back, Erwin nods.

"We follow the action, monitoring from afar. The laws of this world are as unknown to me as they are to you." Rubbing his thumb alongside the back of Levi's hand, he sighs. "However despite that, it's granted us the opportunity to see you earlier than we really should."

Levi blinks, and thinks back to what Kenny had told him. His lips purse, and eyebrows furrow.

"Erwin," he starts, "Am I not dead?"

"No," the commander responds nonchalantly, "Not yet."

His eyes widen, and for a moment, he has to look back down again, swallowing.

"Then that means I still have time."

"Plenty," Erwin hums, already knowing what the captain is referring to, "It isn't over yet. I have faith in your conviction, Levi."

The sun stands halfway behind the horizon line as Levi lifts his head once more, the bright flares of light illuminating the fire that forms within his pupils.

"Then can you wait for me, Erwin?"

The softest of smiles falls on the commander's face, and he squeezes Levi's hand.

"Yeah," he replies.

A moment of silence lasts between them, their eyes doing all the talking.

After a while, Erwin turns back to the sunset.

"I think it's almost time."

"I see," Levi grunts, not wanting to let go of the commander's hand.

They fall silent again, until Levi speaks up.

"Thank you, Erwin."

The blonde smiles and squeezes his hand. 

"I'll be waiting." He pauses, "And here's to hoping you take your sweet time." He says it with a chuckle and a wink, to which Levi merely stares in absent minded shock and affection.

"You just don't want to have to deal with me, don't you?" He jests through a deadpan.

"Of course not- I merely want you to live a long life. And in my stead, take care of those kids with Hange."

A scoff comes from the captain, to which Erwin rolls his eyes.

"You can't hide it, Levi. Something tells me you care more about them than I do."

Levi glares at him, but it's soft.

"Fine. I'll kill that damn monkey and then save the world. Then once that's done, I'll get old and lose my movement and start growing little gray hairs." His face is indifferent throughout his entire speech, which only serves to further push the humoured expression on Erwin's face.

"And I'll be there for every second of it."

Levi seems to pause at this, and looks back down again.

"You aren't afraid at all that I'll find someone else?"

Erwin snorts.

"You? No. And even if you did, I'd still be happy for you."

Groaning, Levi nudges him.

"I'm on the verge of barely staying alive and this is what you have to say to me."

"You brought it up," the commander defends with a soft sigh, his lips ever remaining lifted up.

As night begins to descend upon them, Erwin turns back to him with a more knowing look.

"Levi. You mean a lot to them- Hange and the scouts. Take good care of them for me, okay?"

The captain knows what this means, and letting his farewells be said through his hand and his eyes, he nods.

"I promise."

They smile at each other.

"It's about time you go back now. She's waiting for you."

Levi nods.

"Thank you," he says again.

Erwin only smiles, and doesn't say anything back.

The world begins to fade away, and along with it, the warmth of not just Erwin's hand, but of his mother's, Farlan's, Isabel's, Moblit's, and Kenny's.

But when his eyes flutter open again, blankly staring at the stars that illuminate overhead through the thick of the trees, there's another warmth.

Hange.


End file.
